Before adding and sharing your Fraud Alert please check to see if a similar alert has already been posted, thank you:

These are the five ways to avoid phishing scams

As the new Absa online scam demonstrated, new phishing techniques are continually being developed. Motivated by their high success rate and the monetary gain, it is a popular method among cybercriminals.

Here are a few ways you can stay online and avoid falling prey to phishing scams:

Check the providence of the email

A significant percentage of phishing emails don’t start off with your name but with a more generic greeting such as “Dear Customer”.

Often, a phishing email might appear and state that it comes from a trusted source, such as your bank, but a quick check can reveal its real origin. A message from your bank would not be sent via a Gmail account or any other account, other than their usual address.

A simple check of the sender’s email address is easy to do:

on a computer: hover over the sender’s name next to ‘from’, and the full address should appear

on a phone: click on ‘details’ and yours and the sender’s addresses should display

Avoid clicking on hyperlinks in suspicious/unexpected emails

Claiming to be from a trusted source, such as Apple, Microsoft or your bank, a phishing email can urge you to click on a link that will lead you to a website that may look exactly like the real website. Once there, you might be requested to fill in sensitive information.

Hovering over links, before clicking, can reveal where it leads to. In scams, it almost never leads where it claims it does.

The last part of the domain name is the most revealing.

A bit of knowledge of how the DNS naming structure works is essential.

Example:

info.trusteddomain.com would be a child domain of trusteddomain.com

Scammers often create child domains, bearing the trusted source’s name, to their malicious domain to dupe their victims. The result would look like this:

trusteddomain.maliciousdomain.com

Please go directly to the trusted source instead of clicking a suspicious link.

Similar to hyperlinks, avoid downloading and opening attachments

Don’t download attachments from suspicious websites and emails; you may be opening a door for cybercriminals.

When performing future purchases, the criminals will be able to track your activity and private information. They will then proceed to use this information for their financial gain.

Keep your browser updated and make sure you have enabled firewalls

Popular browsers release regular security patches in response to security loopholes that hackers and scammers exploit. By keeping your browser up to date, you.

Additionally, you should use firewalls. These act as a wall between your computer and outside intrusion. When you use both a desktop firewall and a network firewall, you drastically reduce the chance of infiltration by hackers and phishers.

Regularly check your accounts

Not keeping an eye on your online account could be costly. You may only realise that you’ve been a victim much time after the crime.

Don’t wait until you need to, carry out regular checks just to make sure everything is in order. This will also enable you to change your passwords regularly, which is strongly recommended.

When conducting checks on your monthly statements, verify every entry for any unauthorised transactions.